The Konoha Twelve
by Djehuty3
Summary: Konoha's Yellow Flash. Konoha's White Fang. Konoha's Three Leaves. All legends have an end, and each one is followed by another tale. This is the Legend of the Konoha Twelve. UNDERGOING REVISION.
1. Prologue

-1Tsunade doesn't even look up from her paper work.

"No way."

"Yes way," replies Naruto, evenly (and that right there is a bad sign. Naruto's only calm when he's fucking **Furious**, and right now he is very, very calm). "You want Sound gone, but you can't afford an army of ninja. I can wipe them out with eleven, and right now that's too good a deal for you to fucking pass up."

She growls, but she knows he's right. Madara's war had wiped out half of Konoha's ninja population, but those it had not slain, it had vaunted to greatness. There was not a single genin in the village, and precious few chunin; the Jounin were almost without number. They had earned their titles on battlefields, tearing rank from the throats of enemies nigh-innumerable.

And twelve- children, slackers, luckless fools who'd tasted the rough side of life too many times- had become shinobi strong enough to put even the Sannin to shame.

The silence drags on.

"Fine," she growls. "Take Sasuke. Take your fucking killer's eye. But if you fuck up," and she turns to glare up at him, "you can fucking forget about ever getting to call yourself Rokudaime, you hear me?"

Naruto grins, fox-like, and bows so deep his forehead touches the floor.

"Yes, Ma'am. Always a pleasure to follow the commands of my elders-and betters."

She can taste the sarcasm, but says nothing. After all, what's there to say?


	2. Naruto

-1He's wild.

They all know it. They merely have to look at those odd whisker-marks on his cheeks, or see the big fox-like smile he gives so often, or just glance at those too-sharp teeth to be reminded. Naruto Uzumaki is wild.

At first, they hate him for it. He's a monster, whatever the fourth said. And, while the edict binds them from calling him monster, and the fourth's dying wish keeps them from purging their village of the ugly little monstrosity, they can still hurt him in other ways. In far better ways.

They do not look at the wild thing. They do not speak to it. They ignore it when they can, and treat it with clean, soulless civility when they can't. It hurts him far worse then blows and curses ever could, and he comes to crave recognition. And wild things know only a single way to answer cravings; they hunt for the object of their obsession.

He's wild, but he's a wild thing with a mission; to be ninja. To be Hokage. He learns to fight, and while he learns slowly, he takes to his lessons with a kind of dogged tenacity only ever truly found in the wild. He becomes a ninja through the one thing he has in abundance; sheer force of will. And soon, he makes them respect his wildness. Some even come to like it; to accept that a little bit of his mad ways make the world a more interesting place to live in. And he loves them for that; for accepting him as the half-tame thing he is. For giving him the recognition he craves.

Naruto Uzumaki is wild. But he is also skilled; sometimes frighteningly so. He becomes Chunin on the second try. He brings home the last of the Uchihas, and redeems him in the eyes of Konoha.

But he does not truly understand they've excepted him until he hears them whisper his name when he walks past, awe and respect in those hushed conversations.

_"That's Naruto Uzumaki!"_

_"That's the Yellow Fang!"_


	3. Sasuke

-1They do not trust him much.

Sasuke doesn't really blame them. He doesn't trust him much, either. After all, he'd thought revenge would fill the hole left by grief, but all it had done was left him raw and hollow, friendless in a cold and uncaring world. Who would trust a guide who lead you to that?

But Naruto trusts him, and Naruto brings him back. And Konoha trusts it's Yellow Fang far more then it probably should. Sasuke is imprisoned for three years in a small, comfortable prison. The guards are polite, and the therapist he's assigned begins to help Sasuke put his soul, so scarred by rage and vengeance, back together again.

But then Naruto needs his help. There's a battle going on. Naruto can't win it alone. He comes to the prison, and sits in his friend's cell. Sasuke is asked to do what he is good at; kill.

"I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't need you too, man," says Konoha's Yellow Fang, looking at Sasuke with those crazy blue eyes.

So he does as he is asked, because Naruto is asking him, and on his first day on the battlefield he wields Chidori and sword and sharingan in a lethal dance that cuts through his enemies like a scythe through wheat. The ninja of Konoha watch him with a kind of fearful reverence as he fights and kills with a predatory grace that is so cruel it's almost inhuman.

Afterwards Sasuke hears them whisper his name.

_"Sasuke Uchiha!"_

_"The Killer's Eye!"_


	4. Sakura

-1She's a gentle one.

The old folks say it, and she fights down a bitter laugh every time they do. It's a lie she can't bring herself to correct, because it reminds her of when it was the truth, and she was a soft and kind little thing with bubblegum hair and a big dumb smile. Before she could crush skulls with her bare hands, and shatter steel like glass with a punch.

But it's a lie, because a gentle one doesn't know the taste of awful, poisonous betrayal, or thick, cloying grief, or bittersweet unrequited love.

And oh yes- she knows that last one. Sasuke doesn't ever seem to understand that, even when he comes back, and she doubts he ever will. Itachi, with his lies and betrayals and simple, graceful cruelties, have rent the part of his soul that could love, and no amount of gentle touches or loving glances can heal that wound.

But she tries to, all the same, and she tries to heal other wounds, too. Hands that can rend apart a human being without trying learn to heal the wounds they make. And soon, as patient after patient live when they should have died and walk when they should have crawled, she hears a name whispered amongst those she has dedicated herself to saving.

_"Sakura Haruno."_

_"The Healing Fist."_


	5. Hinata

-1She likes snow.

All Hyuuga do. It's a closely-guarded secret- they are aristocrats and shinobi, killers of the greatest elegance and skill. It would not do to let people know that, to a man, they have to restrain themselves from running and prancing like excited kittens whenever they see snowflakes falling.

It's a gentle quirk, but it does not make them kind; they look down on her despite their shared blood, because she is a failure of the worst kind. She is weak, no matter what her status, and weakness is not to be tolerated. She is thrown away, into shadow and darkness, where it is expected (when it is thought about at all) she will give up and die like all weak Shinobi before her.

But Hinata fights on, and ignores the disapproving whispers. She becomes great in her own quiet, unassuming way, a brutal fighter and an inescapable huntress.

And then the war begins.

The Hokage calls everyone who can fight to the armies, and there is no time to be choosy about your comrades-in-arms. She's been a Jounin for longer then most, so she is given command. And the Hyuuga discover the failure they'd thrown out and ignored is now far from weak. They learn to follow her commands. She brings them through their first battle, high in the snowy mountains, and drives them on with word and example. She fights and fights and fights until the snow is blood-drenched slush around her feet.

And she hears them whisper again, not disapproving now, but awestruck.

_"Hyuuga Hinata…"_

_"The Snow Princess!"_


	6. Kiba

-1He growls. His comrade growls with him.

It's one of a dozen bad habits, and over time it becomes unnoticed. It was not entirely unusual to begin with, amongst his family, and it is easily forgiven over time. They do not think of him much; he's too average amongst that family of hunters and wolves.

But in the world around him, Kiba becomes acknowledged. Out there, he is quite unique. Akamaru and he carve a name for themselves the best way they know; as the hunters and trackers and killers they were born to be. They are sent out after refugees and criminals. Each time, they drag them back, howling to the moon their success.

The war makes them even more useful; they have whole armies to hunt, now, and whole countries to do it in. And as time goes by, the words begin to slip from the lips of those around them.

_"Kiba Inuzaka!"_

_"The Hunter Wolf!"_


	7. Shino

-1They crawl through him at night.

It is a subconscious awareness, the feeling of a billing tiny things crawling through his veins and lungs and innards. He sometimes wonders if this is how his mother felt when she bore him in her womb; as if some tiny thing was lying in her belly, and dreaming to the rhythmic beat of her heart.

Not that he says it, of course. He says very little, usually. Shino does not like to talk, because sometimes he's afraid the bugs will fly from his lips and tear him apart as they go. A childhood fear he can never truly shake, and that leaves him quite and reserved his whole life.

It does not stop him, though. He is Aburame through and through, and Aburame are nothing if not willing to face their fear. He learns to face that fear, to fight it head on, to ignore the tiny prickling sensation of beasts beneath his skin. He becomes blunt, to the point, and utterly in control of himself.

It makes him a nigh-unparalleled ninja. The insects crawl through the world around him, and whisper it's secrets to his ears. He knows all around him, because it is impossible to hide from something that crawls through the wood of your walls and the stone of your floors.

And when they slowly realise this, they name him.

_"Shino Aburame…"_

_"The Mantis Prince!"_


	8. Choji

-1He is afraid of himself.

It is a horrible truth, but one that was beaten home from the day he first looked at his big, clumsy fingers and realised what they were. He could touch nothing with out breaking it, could barely even touch the unbreakable without fear of shattering it.

And that hurts, because Choji likes delicate things; the feel of procelain and the look of silks call to him like sirens at sea. But he cannot, not without fear of shattering what he loves, and so he comes to withdraw from them.

Then he becomes a ninja, and discovers that the paths of harm and murder are perfectly suited to his giant's hands. To harm with a touch is a gift he has had so long he barely needs to learn. As the war begins, he puts them to the use nature seems to have intended, striking with his gargantuan hands, and instilling the fear of a giant's fury in his foes. He hears his comrades whisper his name.

_"Choji Akimichi!"_

_"The Giant Lord!"_


	9. Ino

-1She is not who she wants to be.

That is something she's known for a very long time. If she was who she wanted to be, maybe she could talk to Sakura without that sharp twinge of envy. But she can't help it; Sakura seems to get all the breaks Ino wants.

Ino tries, then, to become the person she dreams about. She cuts her hair in a wild jagged cut, studies the ways of healing, tries to strike with an insane, impossible strength. It's no good; that dream cannot and will not come about. She is a nightmare compared to the dream she wants to be.

So she turns away from the way of the medic nin, and learns new skills. She learns that all people have nightmares, and that she can wield them the same way Sakura can wield her fist. Ino learns cruelty from those nightmares, and subtlety, and when the war comes, she is ready for it.

She wanders the battlefields unseen by those she hurts. She strikes at their minds and drags their fears out into daylight, destroys whole armies with their own night horrors. And the soldiers whisper her name in awe and horror.

_"Ino Yamanaka…"_

_"The Nightmare Touch…"_


	10. Shikamaru

-1He was never afraid of the dark.

It's not an odd thing, in a child like him. His family lives in the shadows, discover it's pathways and secrets, and over time they begin to teach him too. He goes along with it because the alternative is boredom. He is frightened of that, because it reaches into him, into the shard of grey apathy inside him and makes it grow, rending love and killing fear.

So he learns, and he becomes a ninja, desperately fleeing that grey nothingness inside him. It has spread far enough that others think him lazy, but they don't know about that horror he feels inside himself. They come, over time, to respect his mind, though, and he is already a general of sorts when the war comes. He teaches his troops how to move like a shadow and hide like a shade, and they, in turn, give him a name to hide from apathy with.

_"Shikamaru Nara."_

_"The Shadow King."_


	11. Neji

-1It burns, the thing on his forehead.

It's a little lie he tells himself to fuel his hate. It helps him adapt to who he is, and acts as a spur to make himself who he wants to be. Because (though he will never admit it) it doesn't burn. It doesn't feel different at all; it's a part of him in a horrible, inextricable fashion, a cancerous heart spewing poisons through his veins.

It took a fox to make Neji make that lie to himself; he is more thankful for that then he can ever truly express. So he trains as hard as he can, and he fights to make his lie come true, and to tear away the mark of the branch family, both from his forehead and his clan. None shall wear it again. He'll see to that.

And when the war comes, he sees a way to do so. He fights, first amongst the branch family, and then side by side with his cousin, Hinata. They have come to call her the Snow Princess, and he approves, because it fits her like a glove. She is as desperate to rend apart those barriers as he is, and when they name him, he notes the similarities with a kind of ironic glee.

_"Neji Hyuga!"_

_"The Killing Snow!"_


	12. Lee

-1He cannot do what they do.

It is not something he likes to think about, really. It's a weakness, and foolish mistake on the part of nature, and so he comes to ignore it in any way he can. He stops, though, when he realises that the only way to truly defeat that weakness is to overcome it.

He trains every day, with kicks and punches and push-ups and sit-ups and squats and anything he can think of, in a desperate, eternal quest to overcome his weakness. Rock Lee cannot do what they do; his Chakra is untouchable, unresponsive.

Then Might Gai teaches him. He shows him the power of The Iron Fist, and the Fire of Youth, but most of all he shows Lee one thing; a refreshing lack of pity. To Gai, Lee is as strong and powerful as anyone else. And so Lee has his name far longer then any of the others he would one day call comrades in the Konoha Twelve.

_"Rock Lee," _mutters Might Gai. _"The Green Beast."_


	13. Tenten

-1She hates being close to people.

It's a foolish thing; closeness is almost a necessity in the life of a human being, let alone a ninja, but Tenten hates it regardless. The feeling of skin on skin upsets her in an odd, uncomfortable way.

So she studies other methods of combat instead, and learns to kill from a distance, surrounded by the beautiful song of hissing steel and flying metal. She comes to love that, the feel of wood in her hands. It's far better then flesh, firmer, more real. She loves it almost because it's there.

But then the war comes, and she cannot merely throw her blades for pleasure. She throws them for her village and her people, and that makes it that much easier, because for all her hatred of touching, she loves the people she lives amongst. And thus, when they name her, she accepts it as best she can.

_"Tenten."_

_"The Steel Dragon."_


	14. Artist's Notes

-1Right. For those of you who've made your way through this little piece (and by God, if you did so, I'm impressed!), I decided to map out my thoughts and reasonings behind my choices in titles. The likelihood of anyone actually reading this is fairly low, but what the heck, it's better then homework…

**Naruto:** Right. Well, since his father was also a rather well-known Jounin (you might have heard of him. I believe he was the fourth hokage…?), I wanted to reference his title of the Yellow Flash. However, since I still wanted some reference to his rather wild demeanour (which, after all, is the main point of his chapter), I went with fang. And besides, those teeth of his are kinda sharp, ain't they?

**Sasuke:** Since pretty much _everyone _writes about Sasuke coming back to Konoha at some point, I thought I might try to put a bit of a spin on it. It led to quite a nice contrast with Naruto; one's an outsider who becomes excepted, the other's a well-known and respected guy who everyone turns against. Thus, I wanted to work similar references in to his title, but as opposed to his father, I went with his brother, and as opposed to a tooth, I went for his rather more distinctive Sharingan eye.

**Sakura:** Since the other two members of Team 7 both had references to some part of their body, I thought I'd keep to the theme, and went for "Fist". That in itself is a rather subtle little reference to her habit of punching anyone who annoys her into the upper atmosphere. The healing part came from her being a med nin; she's not just a human battle tank, after all. I thought it led to an interesting contradiction; Sakura hurts as much as she heals, which must be a rather difficult thing for a doctor to deal with…

**Hinata:** For some odd reason, the Hyuga have always seemed very snow-ish to me, and the wonderful thing about fan fiction is that you can sneak in all those little bits and pieces without a single guilty thought. The princess part comes from the idea that the Hyuga are accepting her as who she is; the rightful clan heiress. It also preserves Hinata's more feminine feel, and that's practically unique compared to the other girls in the twelve. Ah well- she's prettier then them anyway…

**Kiba:** Ah yes, everyone's favourite flea-bag. I wanted to preserve Kiba's very much feral nature, both as an Inuzaka and as a hunter. His original title was "Dog Hunter", but that frankly sucked, so I switched out the Dog for Wolf (which has a much better resonance to it, with all those lovely connotations) and put Hunter first (because Wolf-Hunter gave entirely the wrong image). Overall, I think it fits Kiba perfectly.

**Shino:** Shino's one of my favourite characters, mainly because he's got some of the best one-shots centred around him in the entire fandom. Go read Break Out by Moonsheen to see what I mean. Anyway, Bug Boy's name was the easiest, mainly because there's barely any canon info on him that would limit my choice. I went with Mantis Prince because it sounds cool and brings up a very appropriate image of a calm, controlled, and utterly deadly character.

**Choji:** Another cool character. Choji gets much less love, though, so I decided to remedy that with a really cool title. Since his combat style revolves around him getting really big and just smashing anything that gets in his way, I decided to go with "Giant Lord". It fits just right, I think.

**Ino:** Ino's always annoyed me, because she's effectively just Sakura without the character development. Since her family's speciality is supposedly Genjutsu (which, in my experience, can make a character THAT. MUCH. FREAKIER.), she always struck me as a total waste of potential. And why train her as a friggin' medic? Get that girl a big book of Genjutsu and let the mind-fuck fu begin! The end result of that is my version of her turning into "The Nightmare Touch", a thoroughly creepy sounding name and thus utterly fitting.

**Shikamaru:** Gah. My dirty little secret. "The Shadow King" is, in fact, a villain in the X-Men comic, and while I can't stand the character, I love his name. This prompted me to steal it wholesale and slap it directly onto Shikamaru, who I consider far more worthy of such a bad-ass title. God, Marvel, please don't sue…

**Neji:** Again, gah. I'm really not fond of Neji's nickname, but I was kinda snowed under with limiting factors; it had to be connected to Hinata's name somehow, but it needed to be different enough to stand on it's own, and it also needed to be sufficiently masculine. The end result works okay, but I think I might need to redo it.

**Rock Lee:** Not my title, I should point out. Still, I find it entirely appropriate.

**Tenten:** A reference to her focus on throwing weapons, as well as her Twin Rising Dragons technique. I'm quite proud of the title, but the chapter leaves me distinctly underwhelmed. I'm thinking about revising the fic as a whole, though, so I might be able to fix that…


End file.
